2. The Norman Conquest

• Lands and vassals

As a result of the Norman invasion, England did not only receive a new royal family but also a new ruling class, a new culture and a new language. The victory at Hastings was only the beginning of the Conquest. Despite the surrender of London and Winchester it took William and his barons over 5 years to subdue the whole of England. There were risings against Norman rule in every year from 1067 to 1070. William ruthlessly put down local revolts. His knights raided villages and towns, burning and slaying everything and everybody. After several risings in the North, the lands of Northumbria were raised to the ground. Every house or cottage between Durham and York was burnt down, people were massacred, crops were destroyed and cattle were driven off. It took Northumbria almost a century to recover.

William organised his English kingdom in accordance with the feudal system which was based on ownership of land. The Conqueror declared that all the lands of England belonged to him by right of conquest. One-seventh of the country was made the royal domain which consisted of 1420 estates. The monasteries were granted 1700 estates. The Anglo-Saxon landowners and clergy were turned out of their houses, estates and churches. More than 4,000 Saxon lords were replaced by a group of less than 200 Norman barons. By 1086 there were only two surviving English lords of any importance.

While all land was owned by the king, part of it was held by the king’s vassals, in return for services and goods. Those were the knights who had taken part in the Conquest, and the Anglo-Saxon lords who supported the Conqueror. The greater nobles gave part of their lands to lesser nobles and other “freemen”. Some freemen paid for the land by doing military service, while others paid rent. The noble kept “serfs” to work on his own land. They were not free to leave the estate, and were often little better than slaves.

The two basic feudal principles implied that every man had a lord, and every lord had land. On getting his estate, each Norman nobleman became the king’s vassal as he swore an oath of allegiance which said: “I become your man from this day forward, and to you shall I be true and faithful, and shall hold faith for the land I hold from you.” William made both the great barons and their vassals swear allegiance to him directly. In 1086, at a gathering of knights in Salisbury, William made them all take a special oath to be true to him against his enemies. Thus, the European rule “my vassal’s vassal is not my vassal’ was broken in England. In other words, if a baron rebelled against the king, his immediate vassals were obliged to fight for the king.

• The Domesday Book

By 1086 the Conqueror wanted to know exactly who owned which piece of land, and how much it was worth. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says: “In 1086 William the Conqueror sent his men all over England, into every shire to find out what property every inhabitant of England possessed in land, or in cattle, and how much money this was worth.” He needed this information to know how much was produced and how much he could ask in tax. That was the first registration and complete economic survey in England. Each manor was described according to value and resources. Every man who owned or rented land was questioned and threatened to be punished on doomsday if he did not answer the questions of the king’s men as to how much land there was; who owned it; how much it was worth; how many families, ploughs and sheep there were, etc. As a result of the registration, the majority of the population were registered as unfree peasants, or serfs. They made 79 per cent of the total population of England.

Domesday was one of the greatest administrative achievements of the Middle Ages. It assisted the royal exploitation of crown lands and feudal rights, and provided the new nobility with a formal record and confirmation of their lands thus putting a final seal on the Norman occupation.

The original copy of the Domesday Book, in several volumes, still exists, and provides an extraordinary amount of information about England at that period of time.

• Castles

To further strengthen his power, William built 78 castles throughout the country. Ironically, the Normans used the labour of the conquered Anglo-Saxons to erect the fortresses which would be used to suppress the native population. The main purpose of the castle was to house the Norman cavalry which would find shelter inside in time of danger and from which they could start on their raids.

A Norman castle was often built on a hill or rock. First, the peasants would dig out a moat and make a drawbridge, and then use the removed soil to make the hill higher. Then they would build a wooden tower on top of the hill and surround it with a wooden wall, wide enough for archers to walk along. The outer wall was strengthened with towers built on each corner. Later the wooden structures were replaced by stone keeps. The castle usually dominated the nearest town, village or countryside.

Most of the castles were royal property. A baron could build a castle only if he was granted the king’s special permission. The first Norman stone castles were the Tower of London, the castle of Durham and Newcastle on the river Tyne. Some castles, such as Windsor Castle, are still used as residences.